Reagan May Ask 50% More for ‘Star Wars’

President Reagan’s proposed $311-billion defense budget for fiscal 1987 will include a $4.3-billion request for development of the “Star Wars” space defense program, an increase of more than 50% over the current fiscal year, congressional sources said Thursday.

The “Star Wars” request probably will be one of the most controversial items in a defense proposal that is also expected to include a 100% increase in development funding for the small, single-warhead Midgetman missile, funding for 21 additional MX missiles and resumption of anti-satellite missile tests.

Proposal Due Wednesday

The President’s proposed fiscal 1987 budget will not be made public until Wednesday, but some members of Congress already have been told by Administration officials that the overall Pentagon request will add up to $311 billion, compared to $281 billion for this fiscal year.

The Administration has promised sufficient non-defense spending cuts to reduce the 1987 deficit to a mandated ceiling of $144 billion.

Although Pentagon officials say they have trimmed their request over earlier projections for the year, it is certain to be cut deeply by Congress in the face of rising deficits and the new Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.

“The President’s budget is a myth,” one key congressional aide declared.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, anticipating such a reaction on Capitol Hill, said Thursday that concern over the deficit has caused what he termed “a wavering of congressional commitment to national security.”

Some of the biggest proposed increases in Reagan’s budget are expected to be in the costs of previously approved weapons, such as the C-17 cargo transport, which are scheduled to go into production during fiscal 1987. Congressional insiders predict that production of those weapons simply would be halted.

“There’s going to be a lot of ‘sticker shock’ this year,” said a Senate aide knowledgeable on defense issues.

The C-17, which would be manufacturered by McDonnell Douglas at an estimated cost of $180 million each, is intended to increase the Pentagon’s ability to move heavy cargo, including tanks and helicopters, around the world and will be able to land on shorter runways than the giant C-5 can.

High Stealth Cost

Sources predicted that members of Congress will also be stunned when they see the projected costs of the supersecret Stealth bomber. Although information about the Stealth is classified, the Pentagon is required to make cost projections available to members of the House and Senate on Feb. 1 under legislation enacted last year.

A fiscal 1987 spending proposal of as much as $4.9 billion reportedly had been considered for “Star Wars,” which is formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. The final Administration request of $4.3 billion, although scaled back, compares to a request of $3.7 billion for this year, which was slashed by Congress to $2.75 billion. For fiscal 1985, the “Star Wars” program had received $1.4 billion.

Anti-nuclear forces in Congress have consistently opposed the rapidly escalating expenditures for “Star Wars” research, but Administration officials argue that the program must proceed because it has helped bring the Soviet Union back to the arms control bargaining table.

Midgetman Funds

In addition, the Administration is said to be asking for $1.4 billion for continued development of the Midgetman missile, more than double the current year’s appropriation of $625 million.

Sources said that the fiscal 1987 budget proposal will not challenge the current congressional prohibition on deployment of more than 50 MX missiles in fixed silos. Instead, they said, the Pentagon will request funding to produce 21 missiles to be used only for testing and as spares.

Pentagon officials have emphasized that the Administration has not abandoned its long-term goal of deploying 100 MX missiles if an acceptable alternative basing mode can be developed.

Anti-Satellite Testing

The Administration is also expected to seek a resumption of testing for its anti-satellite weapons system, which Congress halted in the current fiscal year.

Weinberger, in a speech Thursday to the Detroit Economic Club, said that the nation is “entering a period in which national strategy may be held hostage to the accountant’s pencil--in which the desire for reduced deficits and domestic comfort overwhelms our common sense, narrows our perspective and compels us to shrink from our obligation to resist the most tyrannical forces in the world.”

He continued: “There is a groundswell of opinion that regards military spending as almost inherently unnecessary, that is increasingly unwilling to accept the sacrifices of a powerful nation dedicated to freedom, and so it shrinks from the necessities of world leadership.”

Weinberger specifically criticized the Gramm-Rudman law, calling it “a very absurd way of trying to bring about reductions.” He added that the proposed increase in defense spending is “not as much as we think we need in view of the world situation, but we will certainly deal with it, and we can certainly keep the momentum that we started.”

Deficit Estimate Cut

Meanwhile, congressional sources said that the Congressional Budget Office has tentatively estimated that the deficit this fiscal year will be $178 billion--a figure significantly lower than earlier projections, which had ranged to more than $200 billion.

Although the figure could change before the CBO’s final estimate is released next month, the decline parallels rosier projections made last week by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Those projections are being watched closely, because they will determine the size of spending cuts necessary under Gramm-Rudman. If the ultimate deficit is the amount forecast in the tentative CBO estimate, it will mean that $34 billion must be cut from the fiscal 1987 budget, compared to earlier warnings that $50 billion or more would have to be slashed.

Staff Writers James Gerstenzang and Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.